In her conduct at the Amazonia Mall last month, columnist Anand Goolsarran said that Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes breached several provisions of her government’s Code of Conduct for government officials.
In his accountability column in yesterday’s Stabroek News, Goolsarran said: “Based on the CCTV footage of the incident and in the absence of any information to the contrary, we believe that the Minister’s actions on the day in question breached several aspects of the Code of Conduct.
We were told that the Cabinet discussed the matter, the outcome of which, regrettably, was not made public. It could be that she was reprimanded verbally.
As one letter writer suggested, the Minister should have done the honourable thing by acknowledging that her behaviour was inappropriate and making amends by going back to the venue and talking matters over with the security officers in question. It was left to the Minister of Public Health to do so”.
The government has remained silent and offered several excuses for not pronouncing on whether Broomes’ behaviour at the Providence mall comported with the standards set out in the Code of Conduct.
Broomes had claimed that she and her driver were verbally abused and threatened by the two security guards but surveillance footage of the confrontation showed otherwise. Nevertheless, based on her initial complaint, the two guards were detained by the police for 16 hours before they were released on their own recognisance.
Her reporting of the matter to the police eventually resulted in a recommendation that no charge be laid against anyone in the matter.
